The advent of mobile communication technology has led to the proliferation of radiotelephones (also known as wireless telephone). Now a person can carry with them a radiotelephone anywhere they go. A person can make a telephone call from almost anywhere to another person and can also receive a telephone call from anywhere. Radiotelephones have transitioned from being a luxury item for special professionals used only in emergency situations to a staple item used in people's daily lives.
This popularization has helped to lower prices of radiotelephones and lower prices of wireless services. Now, there are dozens of equipment manufacturers and hundreds of wireless service providers. Each equipment manufacturer produces a plurality of models of radiotelephones and each wireless service provider offers a multiplicity of service plans.
Generally, the radiotelephones are sold as part of packages offered by the service providers. Consumers can get a radiotelephone for very little money, or no money at all, by signing up for wireless services with a service provider. The service providers often offer the radiotelephones for free and set them up for the consumers hoping to retain the consumers as long-term customers.
When a consumer needs a radiotelephone and a wireless communication service, all he needs to do is go to a wireless service provider's store. The consumer can choose a radiotelephone from among many models made by different manufacturers and offered by the service provider. After selecting a radiotelephone and choosing a service plan, the salesperson generally programs the radiotelephone with a mobile identification number (MIN) and enters this MIN into the service provider's database indicating the MIN as belonging to an active customer. The salespeople may also help the customers to program other features of their radiotelephones and solve problems the customers may have with these radiotelephones.
The radiotelephones are gaining more capabilities and are becoming more sophisticated everyday. They are no longer simple communication devices. Just a few years ago, a radiotelephone only performed the simple tasks of sending and receiving communication signals to and from a communication tower. The radiotelephone did not do much besides taking in a destination telephone number, when a user placed an outgoing call, and ringing when a call was received. In comparison, now a radiotelephone can receive and respond to a voice command from users, store frequently dialed telephone numbers, provide options of ringing or vibrating as a means of notification, etc.
Radiotelephones are no longer simple voice terminals anymore, but rather have become multi-purpose data terminals. For example, many service providers are providing Internet access to their radiotelephone service subscribers. A subscriber now can receive latest news, weather, and other information from their hand-held wireless device, as well as reading e-mails or receiving page messages. Some radiotelephones can also function as two-way radios by using special frequencies.
All of these capabilities have made life easier for many users, but at the same time making it almost impossible for users to remember how to control all of these capabilities. To master all the capabilities of a modem radiotelephone handset, a user has to memorize a thick users manual, which is getting more complex everyday. It has become increasingly impossible for users to program their handsets without spending a long time reading the users manuals, and the users manuals continue to get technically more complex.
Even for salespersons at a service provider's retail store, whose job is to help users to program radiotelephones, the programming of handsets has become a time-consuming task that must be performed with reference to the user manuals.
Therefore, there is a need for a system that helps consumers and salespersons to program wireless handsets.